Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 2, 2026

Nigel Poor

Nigel Poor is an artist and cofounder and co-host of the podcast Ear Hustle. She is co-author of the book This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Last revised
Jun 2, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
356 w
Citations
15
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor in 2023. source ↗

Nigel Poor is an artist and cofounder and co-host of the podcast Ear Hustle.12 She is co-author of the book This Is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.3

Early life and education

Poor grew up near Boston.3 She has a B.A. in Photography and Literature from Bennington College in Vermont, and an M.F.A in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art.1

Career

Poor began volunteering at San Quentin State Prison in 2011 as a photography teacher with the Prison University Project.456 From her work in photography came the idea for The San Quentin Prison Report Radio Project,7 the precursor to Ear Hustle.

She is a Professor of Photography at California State University, Sacramento.48

Poor's photography has been exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. She created a series of photographs based on an archive of photos from San Quentin, in which incarcerated men annotated the photographs with their own impressions and context.93

Poor and her co-hosts were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2020 for Season 4 of Ear Hustle.110

References

References

  1. "Finalist: Nigel Poor, Earlonne Woods and Rahsaan Thomas". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved Oct 8, 2024.
  2. "Earlonne Woods and Nigel Poor on The Great Discontent (TGD)". The Great Discontent (TGD). 2024-05-10. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  3. "Nigel Poor". Photograph. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  4. "Photography < Sacramento State". catalog.csus.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-10-08. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  5. "Nigel Poor | Penguin Random House". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Archived from the original on 2024-10-08. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  6. "Rachel Kushner in Conversation with Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods". Aperture. Archived from the original on 2024-10-08. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  7. "Nigel Poor". A Blade of Grass. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  8. Gobir, Nimah (2021-10-26). "Listening to learn: Why 'Ear Hustle' stories about prison life are so engaging to students | KQED". www.kqed.org. Archived from the original on 2024-10-08. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  9. "Nigel Poor | Tell Them We Were Here Documentary Film". 2021-01-13. Archived from the original on 2024-10-08. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
  10. Thomas, Rahsaan "New York" (2022-02-16). "The creators of 'Ear Hustle': 'We were just trying to tell stories'". Current. Retrieved 2024-10-08.
External links